Vintage glamour in Blackheath

Congratulations Will and Elena, it’s always nice to see a wedding come together with a personal touch and such thought behind every detail. A lovely and relaxed happy couple.

 

We know there is much, much more to a wedding than just the brides dress, but we have to say how truly amazing Elena looked in her bespoke vintage gown. This stunning 1930’s dress was an amazing find, bought in Camden passage for only £100. Elena then had the dress altered and restored by costume maker (Hilary Wili) who also added a beautiful belt, sourced via Ebay.

After a ceremony held in Charlton House, photos were taken in Greenwich park before heading to the reception at a family home; The Pagoda, Blackheath. Elena and Will’s main influences for their wedding were for the day to be as relaxed as possible but with a hint of vintage glamour. Elena said “we wanted it to be colourful, pretty and to include lots of things I had handmade (along with all the friends and family we roped in!)”

The reception looked colourful and inviting with handmade paper bunting hanging from the marquee and English country flowers and vintage china on the tables. Elena certainly has an eye for design and used vintage dinner plates, side plates and vintage linen napkins to make a place setting along with each guest receiving a jar or homemade jam. The tables were decorated with flower displays in vintage glass vases and candlesticks; each being different per table.

We asked Elena to share with you any of her suppliers she was really pleased with.   
 “Our photographer was wonderful, she managed to capture everyone and the day so perfectly and most of the time we never realised she was there www.aliciaclarke.com   Also our friend did the catering and everyone commented on how delicious the food was, and most importantly (for me at least) was very vegetarian friendly! www.feast-food.com 

Lorna & Alex’s tea party wedding; 100% chintz…

It has been a delight working with Lorna and Alex as they are such a lovely, friendly couple who always compliment us on our vintage items! When we saw Lorna and Alex the day after their wedding, they both had big smiles on their faces and said “we had the most amazing day and everywhere we looked was pure chintz; it was perfect - just as we wanted”

After seeing a snowy picture of their ideal wedding venue in a magazine, Lorna & Alex chose Chiddingstone Castle in Kent for their ceremony and reception.  Lorna admitted to having a little cry during a visit to the Castle as she was so in love with the beautiful building and gardens.  We were lucky enough to take a peek around the grounds and would highly recommend this truly stunning wedding venue.

Lorna and Alex put a huge amount of time into the planning of their wedding. With the help of family and friends they made bunting, name tags, stationary and pretty favours which were jam jars filled with sweets. They made their jewellery from vintage broaches and Lorna’s talented mum made their stunning cake. Some of Lorna’s friends even made her a chintzy apron to wear during the meal which they had hand stitched 'Mrs Dilley. Perfect Wife Perfect Dress'.

The majority of the items hired from Vintage Flair were used in flower displays throughout the venue. This is the first wedding where our sugar bowls, gravy boats and bon bon dishes were used for flowers – a nice original idea to add a quirky touch to the tables.

We asked Lorna what advice she would give to other brides planning a vintage themed wedding and she recommends making picture boards of ideas, visiting antique fairs to pick up unique pieces, getting ideas from wedding blogs and being creative; putting as much of a personal touch to the day as possible. Although this is hard work, Lorna said it was well worth it on the day.

All of the flowers were supplied by Distinctly Floral ( http://www.distinctlyfloral.co.uk/index2.html )from Hadlow , Kent who also supplied some of the earthenware pots and jars -  we have to thank for these lovely pictures. Take a look at these unique displays…

The items supplied by Vintage Flair to help create this look were: china cups & saucers, side plates, lace tablecloths, china sugar bowls, china milk jugs, a silver candelabra, a glass water jug, china teapots, silver teapots, glass bon bon dishes, glass medicine bottles (variety of colours), glass cake stands, a gravy boat, glass vases, vintage inspired picture frames, a china tureen and lots and lots of strings of pearls. If you would like to create a similar theme for your wedding, please contact us at info@vintage-flair.co.uk or via our website http://www.vintage-flair.co.uk/

We would like to thank Laura Dodsworth for the professional images used in this blog. Lorna and Alex were really pleased with Laura as their photographer and would highly recommend her (http://www.lauradodsworth.co.uk/)

Laura & Graeme at wonderful Marle Place Gardens

We first met Laura and Graeme in January for their consultation. From our meeting we knew their wedding would be one to remember and we weren’t wrong! Following a traditional church service, Laura and Graeme held their reception at the stunning Marle Place, Bretchley in Kent. On the morning of their wedding our fingers were crossed for Laura and Graeme as the weather forecast did not look good and having seen the amazing venue the day before, they needed the sun to be shinning to be able to enjoy the wonderful grounds and gardens.  As you can see from these gorgeous pictures, they were lucky!

Firstly I’m sure you will all agree that Laura’s dress, by Delphine Manivet, is simply stunning and the bridesmaids each in different dresses really encapsulates the vintage/country/ boho style which runs through the reception. Laura and Graeme hired 3 giant tipis from Beautiful World Tents , hung bunting and hops from the rafters and decorated the tables in vintage tea cups, glass candlesticks, vintage glass vases, old medicine bottles and vintage lace napkins and tablecloths. We loved Laura’s idea of using vintage glass vases to display the bridal party’s bouquet as decoration for the cake table.

Here are some of the highlights...

Photographs were taken by Browns Photography and the items Laura hired from Vintage Flair to style her venue were: vintage cups and saucers, vintage napkins, vintage glass candle sticks, vintage glass vases, country style bunting, vintage lace tablecloths, vintage glass medicine bottles, vintage china milk jugs, vintage china sugar bowls and vintage cake knife. Please contact us at info@vintage-flair.co.uk for full details and prices.

Once again, congratulations Mr & Mrs Doyle, we thoroughly enjoyed working with you to help create a truly special wedding.

Ellen & Elizabeth x

The London Vintage Wedding Fair

This is the one fair we love to exhibit at - everyone who walks through the door loves vintage and therefore adores our china! Due to the overwhelming popularity, the fair outgrew its previous venue in Portobello Road and was held at The Royal Geographical Society building.  The building itself is a stunning venue - also available to hire for your wedding!

Our Vintage Flair display had a beautiful background in front of a huge sunny window, overlooking the courtyard where free champers was being enjoyed by the visitors.

This year, we had three displays demonstrating the different ways our vintage china and other accessories can be incorporated into any type of wedding reception. Our main table featured an afternoon tea/buffet table with our bespoke china cake stands, cake plates, cups and saucers etc.

The second display showed an effective way of having the wedding cake table, incorporating gorgeous bon bon dishes and stacked glass cake stands.  Finally, the third display featured a more formal dining example using china dinner plates, side plates, cups and saucers and napkins.

Amongst a huge selection of truly amazing wedding dresses were the beautiful Emmy shoes and Peartree photography that have some stunning portfolios you can see here. There are far too many beautiful dress and jewellery stands to mention but have a look at the list of exhibitors on The London Vintage Wedding Fair website.

Royal Wedding - Street Party

With only a few weeks to go until Will and Kate’s big day, plans are taking shape all over the country to celebrate in true British style. There are so many blogs and websites which have been set up to follow the royal wedding; I even read an article on how some Councils have set up courses on how to throw a street party!

Whether you are planning a street party, garden party or, due to English weather, an afternoon tea party; add a special touch by using fine English china and beautiful cake stands to make your party a truly royal affair.

So, what are the essentials you should really have for your royal wedding party? Everyone loves cake so why not go for a traditional Victoria sponge and a selection of scones with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam. Try to keep a very British theme with sandwich fillings such as Aberdeen Angus beef, Cheddar cheese & tomato, cucumber and Scottish smoked salmon. Mini Melton Mowbray pork pies, Long Clawson Stilton, quince jelly and Piccalilli will set the scene perfectly.  Oh, don't forget to buy your union jack bunting before everyone sells out!

Rather than cracking open the champers (which could be an expensive option!), Vintage Flair cut glass jugs look amazing when used to serve Pimms, Elderflower cordial or Gin & Tonic.

If you haven’t planned your party yet, you should crack on!  As well as a good excuse to celebrate, it’s also a great opportunity to get to know your neighbours and build friendships within your own community. For ideas on how to throw the perfect royal party contact Ellen & Elizabeth at info@vintage-flair.co.uk or give us a call on 07919 280372.

BRIDES magazine - 'What's affordable but also has impact?'

We were delighted to receive an e-mail from Natasha at BRIDES magazine asking to use our china for a photo shoot. For such a young company this was a huge achievement as (in our opinion) BRIDES Magazine is the best in its category. The feature title for the shoot was ‘What’s affordable but also has impact?’This feature is perfect for our vintage china as elegant cups and saucers for £1.80 and side plates for 50p, can add colour and style to a wedding from as little as £2.30 per guest.

We feature in the March/April 2011 issue which is on sale now. You can find our china in the images on pages 212 & 213. Delighted with the images, it was well worth getting lost in the back streets of London trying to find Vogue House to deliver the china.

BRIDES is a Conde Naste publication.  You can view their website at www.bridesmagazine.co.uk  or join us in following them on Twitter twitter.com/bridesmagazine.

Vintage Glamour

There are so many styles that can be created with vintage china; garden party, afternoon tea, Alice in Wonderland, retro or just quirky. Although all of these look lovely, we do feel extra excitement when a bride tells us they are having a vintage glamour themed wedding as this means pearls, diamonds, amazing dresses and bold hairstyles. 

Amazing flower displays can be created using vintage glass cake stands, cups and saucers, teapots or tureens. The detail on the stands is so much more interesting than standard flower vases.

Whenever we receive an enquiry for a vintage wedding in Essex we recommend Claire Sankey from Lily & May. We first met Claire at a wedding fair in 2009 and have been working with her ever since. She totally gets the vintage look and knows our china items well. We often hold client consultations together so we can all agree on the flowers and tableware at the same time.

To check out Claire’s other creations, visit her website lily and may. To see other Vintage Flair china items visit our gallery Vintage Flair gallery